This invention relates generally to apparatus for infeeding or providing a continuous supply of articles to a processing device.
Modern fabricating or processing equipment often operates at relatively high rates of speed in order to attain commercially economical production costs. To operate at these speeds, the processing equipment must be provided with an effectively endless supply of articles to be processed. Specialized equipment, sometimes called feeding or infeeding equipment, has been devised to meet this need. Infeeders which have been found commercially attractive are described and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,722,741 and 4,000,709.
Those infeeders are shown and described as presenting supplies of can ends for attachment to a can body. However, the equipment can be easily adapted to handle a wide array of products or parts such as metal, plastic or paperboard lids, tubs, stampings, or box flats. With the adoption of the infeed units as shown in the above mentioned patents for use with carton blanks, certain problems were encountered. Initially, the processing machines for the blanks will not function with blanks where the edges have become damaged viz., bent or frayed, during transfer from the infeed apparatus to the receiving pocket of the supply means for the processing machine. Damage of this type can occur for a number of reasons, including blank edge impact against the receiving pocket. The present invention provides means to open the receiving pocket thereby eliminating the likelihood of damage to the blanks. Secondly, the processing machine will utilize blanks at an extremely high rate, between 1000 and 2500 blanks per minute. As such, during transfer of a stack of blanks, the level of the blanks at the receiving station may fall well below the new stack being introduced for supply thus creating a gap through which the new stack must drop. The larger this gap, the greater the risk that the lowermost blanks may become disoriented during movement through this gap. A second feature of the present invention involves means for assuring a smooth drop of the newly introduced stacks of blanks for integration with the blanks in the supply means.
In general terms, an infeeder is arranged to provide a number of carrier pocket devices which can be moved endlessly to and away from an article delivery station. Stacks of articles to be processed, such as can ends or box flats, can be manually or otherwise placed in the carrier pockets. This emplacement can be accomplished by a single employee who attends and services a number of processing lines and infeed units. The filled carrier members are indexed to a delivery station, where an ejector mechanism transfers the article stack from the carrier pocket to a confronting receiver pocket. The receiver pocket is connected to an intake structure for a downstream processing machine.